cheesy chicken breadstick tacos

I’ll be totally honest. I love eating together with my kids but I don’t necessarily love cooking with them. Yup, you’ll see them here on this blog, cooking away and looking really happy…and they really are. What you don’t see is me in the background, trying to be patient with them as I see them taking double (or triple) the time I would take and making all sorts of messes. So no, I don’t love cooking with them but I continue to do it because I know that they love it and because they’re interested in it and it truly does make them more open to trying things they might not love. It gives them a sense of pride and ownership in the meal we end up sharing together at the table and my hope is that maybe they’ll take some of those skills off to college (unlike me!). My entire life I watched my grandmother and mom cook but I had never really cooked a thing until I starting dating my husband. We were together all the time and over time, it just wasn’t practical to eat out every single meal. It took me a long time to figure things out in the kitchen and of course I eventually did, but if my kids can get more of the basics down early on, I hope they’ll use those skills when they’re eventually off on their own.

It’s funny – my son, who is 9, tends to naturally want to cook and use the knife while my daughter, who is 6, really enjoys baking and has the necessary temperament to be detailed and patient. I tell them both not to limit themselves but of course they naturally gravitate towards what they like. This recipe was going to be something that I let my son do from start to finish but then he abandoned me to play outside with friends but the little one wanted to help and jumped right in! It did take some more time but already, she’s getting so much more proficient doing these things on her own. My heart literally swells with love and pride when I see her big smile and then, yes… it is all worth it.

Note: The only change I really made was to not make the sour cream dipping sauce. My family tends to not like dips so I knew it’d be flavorful enough for them to eat without! Visit Picky Palate if you’d be interested in the sour cream dipping sauce (link above)!

Prep time: 10 min | Cook time: 20 min | Total time: 30 min

Ingredients

1 cupfinely shredded cooked chicken breast

1 1/2 teaspoonsOld El Paso Taco Seasoning, divided

12 ouncesprepared pizza dough

1 1/2 cupsshredded cheddar cheese

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

Place chicken and 1 teaspoon Old El Paso Taco Seasoning into a medium mixing bowl, stir to combine. Press your pizza dough into a rectangle filling most of the space on your baking sheet. Top half of dough with cheese then evenly place shredded chicken mixture over cheese. Top with additional cheese and fold dough over filled dough, pressing edges firmly to seal. Doesn’t have to be perfect, just mostly sealed. Sprinkle with an additional 1/2 teaspoon taco seasoning and use a pizza cutter to cut 1 inch “breadstick” strips. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until cooked through. Remove and let cool for 5 minutes before separating into breadsticks.